Something to get their teeth into

Tomorrow the kids start at their new, neighbourhood school.  What better way to knock any nerves they might be feeling into perspective than with a trip to the dentist?

Remarkably, given the cavalier way that they neglect their teeth, neither of them have cavities.  However the hygienist gave them a thorough going-over with the full compliment of sharp pointy things and it wasn't the best fun morning of their lives, I'm sure.  But they survived the ordeal, and after that the first day of school should be a piece of cake.

The Girl celebrated the last day of vacation with a water-balloon fight in the backyard with a couple of friends, and the Boy hung out with his buddy.  The weather may still be warm, but the endless summer is drawing to a close.

The Man adds...here are some of my favourite memories from Mystic Seaport:

The "Joseph Conrad" in early morning. Imagine the rowers singing sea shanties to complete the picture:

A replica of the Brant Point Light on Nantucket Island. "In case you were wondering", the commentary said, "above you is a fourth order Fresnel lens!"



The "Charles W Morgan", 19th century whaler under painstaking restoration.

Mystic deja vu

I thought we'd perhaps spend another hour or two at Mystic Seaport museum then move on to something else.  But in the end we happily spent the whole day there.  There was a treasure-hunt style challenge to complete, old-fashioned games to play, a horse and carriage ride, a live show about whaling to watch, more stores and ships to visit...and the hours flew by.

Mystical experience

We'd been planning to head up to Lake Placid this holiday weekend, but the forecast was iffy.  However the forecast for the Connecticut coast was pretty well perfect, so that's where we headed instead and here we are in the historic harbour town of Mystic.

We arrived in the early afternoon and headed straight to Mystic Seaport, a living museum dedicated to America's seafaring history.  There are wonderful tall ships to explore, seaport homes and businesses to visit and many hands-on opportunities for kids.  It's not a cheap day out - but our tickets are good for tomorrow, too, so we'll have another chance to see all the things we missed or wanted to spend more time on today. 

Market research

A day of recovery after our water park exertions.  The Man in particular is battered and bruised after too many trips through the Mighty Ananconda, and a couple of death defying plunges down the Canyon.

It has been much cooler today - though still pleasantly warm - and quite breezy.  Everything looks suddenly September-ish.  Leaves are not only starting to change colour, but also to come down.  I've heard that the unusually hot, dry summer we've had will result in an early and brief fall season this year, with the stressed out trees in a hurry to give up their leaves.

All sorts of things, including stall-holders' gazebos, were blowing about at the farmers' market this morning.  We like to go there every Saturday, and we seek out something new to try each week.  Today we came home with some Vietnamese veggie rolls which we enjoyed at dinner time.  The kids are more interested in their regular treats of choice - homemade lemonade, chocolate brownie, round chips (fries) made from freshly dug potatoes and cooked on the spot.

Too much fluming fun

So, not only does his own family go off and have fun at Zoom Flume, but the Exile and family do just the same.  And the weather is about to take a turn for the seasonably cooler ahead of the Labor Day weekend after which everything closes.  What's a Man to do except take an afternoon off and go get a piece of that water park action before the summer's over and done with?

By popular demand we went back to Zoom Flume today for a final, end-of-season fling.  The temperature was a good 10 degrees lower than it had been, and it was cloudy, so visitor numbers were down - but it was still warm enough to have a great time all over again, and with much less queueing.  With just a few hours at our disposal we packed in a phenomenal number of slides.  Girl and Boy were yet more daring than on Tuesday, and the Boy would even have braved the terrifyingly vertical Canyon Plunge if it hadn't closed early (slightly to his relief).  And as for their father...

This evening the exhausted Man and I have been taking turns dropping off to sleep before bedtime.  Not so the kids, who have taken advantage of their dozing parents to sneak in a late night.  Sometimes I feel too old for this job.

Catskill Mountain House

The Man writes ...a short walk from North-South Lake where we went canoeing on Sunday leads you suddenly to a small clearing and a seemingly endless, panoramic view from the edge of the Catskill escarpment over the Hudson Valley.

This is the site of the Catskill Mountain House, a neo-classical hotel built in 1823 when the Catskills were the fashionable playground of the New York wealthy and served (from 1892) by the extraordinary Otis Elevating Railway.

Nothing remains of those times today - the railway was dismantled during World War 1 and the hotel was deliberately burnt down by the State in 1963 - except for some (presumably genuine) Victorian grafitti.

Jacques Cousteau takes a bath

After all that excitement yesterday, today has been much quieter.  That said, the Girl did get to try bareback horse-riding at farm camp.  Cool!  I wish I'd been there to see it.

For some reason the children have got into competitive snorkelling - competing against each other for who can stay underwater the longest.  They do it in the pool, but also in the bathtub.  Tonight the Boy claims to have stayed under for more than fifteen minutes, which he admits was rather boring. 

It has been another scorchio day - up to 95F at lunchtime, and humid with it.  I gather it has been the hottest summer on record in this region.